Litter in Our Storm Drain System

What’s Up With All This Trash?

Last year, The Great American Cleanup, sponsored by Keep America
Beautiful, Inc., reported that 2.3 million volunteers picked up 148
million pounds of litter and debris in 14,000 communities across the
U.S. That’s an incredible accomplishment for a spring cleanup. But it
also says a lot about the extraordinary amount of trash that is
polluting our environment.

One might think that Fairfax County residents, more educated and
wealthier than most Americans, would be above littering. The folks in
the county’s Maintenance and Stormwater Management Division, however,
would tell you otherwise.

Phil Miley inspects privately owned stormwater management ponds
primarily on commercial property. He travels throughout the county with
a camera in hand, capturing images of negligence and intentional
disregard for the health and aesthetics of our environment. “The amount
of trash we find is incredible,” says Miley. “We’re fighting a losing
battle.”

Larry Tapper is a senior maintenance supervisor responsible for the
maintenance of about 1,000 publicly maintained ponds. He echoes Miley’s
comments. Tapper says the county has a lot of open areas that
contractors and developers use as dumping grounds. He says residents do
similar damage by dumping grass clippings and other yard debris into a
drainage channel or directly into the storm drain. “The public needs to
have a better understanding of proper disposal practices,” says Tapper.

Billy Glines oversees crews who have to maintain and repair stormwater
structures. Residents are quick to call the county when their backyards
flood. Often, the storm drains are plugged, which means the crews have
to take the lids off and climb in with buckets. “We find syringes,
broken beer bottles, and oil containers,” says Glines. “People have to
learn that these storm structures are not trash cans.”

In Reston, he recently found a strapped up bundle of newspapers that
were never delivered. “We even find Christmas trees in the catch
basins.”

Pictured above is an underground detention system filled to the top
with trash.

This publicly maintained dry pond is filled with trash. Any
substance that makes it through the pipe outlet ends up in a
stream.

This water quality plate was torn off by a member of a homeowner
association. When the plate is installed, it is the primary device
responsible for the detention of trash and other pollutants picked up
by stormwater before flowing further downstream. The plate reduces the
size of the opening of the pipe outlet, thereby slowing the release of
water to let the pollutants settle out. The trash rack covering the
plate keeps trash from going downstream.